The University of Joseph

As I drove through the mountains above Beirut this afternoon, I was reminded of a lecture I once received, back in 1992, on the geology of Lebanon. “This is a typical karstic landscape,” the professor told me. Nothing unusual about that, other than the fact that the professor was the founder of Hamas, Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, and he was telling me this outdoors, as we were walking in between makeshift tents, in the south of Lebanon. We were surrounded by grey rock formations, half covered by snow.

In December of 1992, Rantissi was deported by the Israeli authorities to southern Lebanon with another 416 Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad operatives, and he emerged as the general spokesman of the expellees. They had been sleeping in these tents, without proper clothes or blankets, for a good two weeks then, and he was obviously cold. But that afternoon, as the sun came out, he gave me a very interesting lecture on the karstic features of the land that surrounded the tents.

Mind you, Rantissi was not a geologist; Geology wasn’t even his hobby. He was a pediatric, an MD, and taught parasitology and genetics at the Islamic University.

But he could tell me all about the karstic landscape of Lebanon. How it was formed, how these stone formation got their odd shapes and colors, etc. I asked him of course how he knew all that. “I learned this at the University of Joseph”.

I’m on the left, Rantissi on the right. I cannot remember the name of the man in the middle. Anyone? (The scarf was something they requested before the interview; it's a common request when interviewing people that have strong religious beliefs)

I was unfamiliar with that university, so he explained it to me.

The University of Joseph is a very interesting phenomenon; It only exists in Israeli jails, and you can only attend courses if you have been arrested (or held) by the Israeli authorities. It is a system set up by prisoners and goes as follows; once you are in jail, you are required to give a course. You must teach in your area of expertise. And it really doesn’t matter if you are a carpenter, a pediatrician, a car mechanic or a geologist. You must teach your fellow convicts something that they might be able to use, or just something that is interesting. In turn, other convicts will teach you also something about their area of expertise, and you must attend their lectures.

As Rantissi explained it to me, it is a system that helps take away the immense boredom and low moral of jail time. It keeps you busy, helps pass the time, keeps those minds going, and makes the most of your time ‘inside.’ He’d done a few stints already, he said, and had learned quite a bit about car mechanics in the meantime.

Since the Israelis had dumped the 200 something Palestinians into Lebanon - most of them well educated people - they had had a few courses. One of them was a geology professor from Bir Zeit University if I remember correctly, and he had lectured them on the karstic stone formations surrounding the tents.

The story ends there.

The deportees in the snow at prayer time.

Upon his return to Israel in 1993, Rantissi was arrested, but later released. Then in 2004 he was eventually blown up by the Israelis.

But every time I drive through the mountains, and see those stone formations, I am reminded of Dr. Abdel Aziz al-Rantissi, the founder of Hamas.

Odd how some things stick. He told me the name was chosen because Joseph was also thrown in jail a number of times.

I only wondered later why they had chosen a Jewish person as the model for their university, but by then Rantissi was gone, and I never had the chance to ask him. Anyone?

(Update: Anonymous wrote "sourate 12 is untitled joseph....so muslims do not consider him as a jew" and Lebanessa wrote "Joeseph is a prophet in Islam as are Abraham, Moses etc etc." Well, that solves that mystery)